West Indies Federation

The West Indies Federation was a short-lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962, with Chaguaramas serving as its capital. The union consisted of the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, Montserrat, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands, and it was supposed to hold similar status in the Commonwealth as Canada, Australia, or the Central African Federation. The federation collapsed not long after it was formed as the result of internal political conflicts over how the Federation would function, and Anguilla, Montserrat, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos remained British dependencies, while the other constituent states gained independence.